The Morning Wrap: Indian Pharma Co May Have World's First Zika Vaccine; Here's The World's Largest Underwear

RECIFE, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 03: Mother Daniele Santos feeds her baby Juan Pedro, 2-months-old, in their living room on February 3, 2016 in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. In the last four months, authorities have recorded thousands of cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. Microcephaly results in an abnormally small head in newborns and is associated with various disorders. The state with the most cases is Pernambuco, whose capital is Recife, and is being called the epicenter of the outbreak. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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An Indian pharmaceutical company from Hyderabad may be the first to develop a vaccine against the mosquito-borne Zika virus, of which there has been a fresh outbreak in south America. Bharat Biotech claimed to have achieved a breakthrough in developing a vaccine to fight the dreaded virus, which causes serious birth defects in children.

Main News

Ten soldiers were buried under snow after their camp in the northern part of the Siachen glacier was hit by a major avalanche. Rescue operations by specialised teams of the Army and the Air Force are under way, and are being coordinated from Leh and Udhampur.

Not leaving anything to chance after Pakistani terrorists attacked the Pathankot airbase in January, the air force has issued shoot-on-sight orders against intruders at more than 20 of its front-line bases in the western sector, a senior IAF officer said.

Faced with the challenges of extremism, Maharashtra rolled out a deradicalisation programme for the minority community that included opening vyayam shalas, making NCC, Bharat Scouts and Guides (BS&G) compulsory in minority schools, and setting up an independent media outlet to deliver ‘mainstream thoughts and values’ to its youth.

A minor schoolgirl from rural Jharkhand decided she wanted to study further and reached out to the authorities to stop her parents from getting her married. She is now under the protection of the Child Welfare Committee.

A 21-year-old final-year B Tech student of IIT-Kharagpur bagged a job with Microsoft that pays a whopping Rs 1.02 crore per annum. Vatsalya Singh Chauhan studied in a Hindi-medium government school and is the son of a welder from Bihar.

Opinion

“The problem with the BJP is that Section 377 falls dead bang in the middle of the conflict between the party’s aspiration and reality. The Narendra Modi-led government aspires to present an image of India as a modern liberal democracy to the rest of the world, a beacon of hope in the region, a bastion against illiberal forces,” writes Sandip Roy in The Huffington Post India. “Section 377 flies in the face of the very idea of such a modern liberal democracy.”

The Right to Education (RTE) Act just completed five years of operation. While it is too early to pass a judgment on the success of this Act, the initial trends are somewhat disappointing, explains Ajey Sangai in The Hindu. “The Annual Status of Education Report 2014 reveals that enrolment in private schools has increased from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 30.8 per cent in 2014. But has this increase been accompanied by a proportionate inclusion of disadvantaged groups?”

“The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has completed 10 years and the NDA government recently claimed that its rule resulted in a “transformation” in the implementation of the scheme. The veracity of the claim is highly questionable as we observe a wide lacuna in its implementation in several places,” write Chakradhar Buddha and Rajendran Narayanan in The Indian Express. In the drought-hit district of Mahabubnagar in Telangana, lack of adequate staff and payment delays undermine the act.